Scalability of mobile technology interventions in the prevention and management of HIV among adolescents in low-income and middle-income countries: protocol for a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: The rate of new infections with HIV remains high among adolescents globally. Adolescents in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), who are least likely to have access to quality healthcare, have the highest proportion of those living with HIV. Mobile technology has played an important role in providing access to information and services among adolescents in recent years. This review aims to synthesise and summarise information that will be useful in the planning, designing and implementing of future mHealth strategies. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Interventional studies, reported in English, on the prevention and management of HIV among adolescents that used mobile technology in LMICs will be included. MEDLINE (via PubMed), Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, Clinicaltrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), and the Cochrane Library are the information sources that have been identified as relevant to the area of study. These sources will be searched from inception to March 2023. The risk of bias will be assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. The scalability of each study will be assessed using the Intervention Scalability Assessment Tool. Two independent reviewers will conduct the selection of studies, data extraction, and assessment of the risk of bias and scalability. A narrative synthesis of all the included studies will be done. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was not necessary for this study. This is a systematic review of publicly available information and therefore ethical approval was not deemed necessary. The results of this review will be published in a peer reviewed journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This protocol has been registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO), registration number CRD42022362130.